CAQ star Duchesneau wins most important political battle yet

William Marsden, The Gazette09.04.2012

Jacques Duchesneau, the Coalition Avenir Québec candidate for the riding of Saint-Jerome, talks to supporters after his victory in the in the Quebec provincial election in Saint-Jerome north of Montreal Tuesday September 4, 2012.

Jacques Duchesneau was the star candidate for the upstart Coalition Avenir Québec. And on election night that star shone.And while he said he was disappointed that the 27 per cent of the popular vote gained by the CAQ translated into only 19 seats, it still means his party has become a force to be reckoned with in a minority government.“We are close (to forming a government),” he said in an interview. “We just don’t have enough seats.” He said the CAQ and the PQ do not share common ground on most issues and so the National Assembly could be a fractious political stage.“My message is that (the government) is going to hear from me,” he said. “I got a message loud and clear from the people I met during the campaign and for them it was enough, we need some change.” He easily won his Saint-Jérôme riding, jumping ahead from the get-go and never relinquishing his comfortable lead.And by 9 p.m. it was clear that Quebec’s corruption fighter had won his most important political battle yet, vanquishing his only real opposition, Parti Québécois incumbent Gilles Robert.This self-proclaimed proud Canadian who says he has no taste for sovereignty or nationalist sentiments won a riding that in the 1995 referendum voted 62.9 per cent for leaving Canada.And he did it in an election where PQ leader Pauline Marois vowed to push for a referendum on sovereignty and pass legislation that will bar citizens from running for public office who don’t speak an “acceptable” level of French. His party has won enough seats to allow it to shift the balance of power in a minority government headed by the PQ. A good part of that success is due to Duchesneau, who campaigned relentlessly across the province often drawing large crowds of supporters.As the province’s most visible corruption fighter, he has successfully fashioned himself the champion of the common man. Wherever he campaigned, the crowds rallied to cheer him on and encourage the man who they hope would finally clean out the Augean stables of Quebec’s construction industry.Saint-Jérôme is his ticket into the National Assembly where he will gain a fresh and more powerful stage to continue that crusade.His mantra is clear: “I speak my mind.”His message is categorical: “It’s time to shake things up.”And while reckless accusations sometimes flow from this, Duchesneau says he is unapologetic. After all, if you are going to shake things up, don’t talk about it. Do it.Which is why he ran for the Coalition Avenir Québec, the party that claimed to offer debt-laden Quebecers, who have fallen to ninth on Canada’s income scale, a better future. It’s a future, the CAQ claims, where fair, clean and competitive practices define government contracting; where high school dropout rates are halved from the current 20 per cent province-wide; where everybody has a family doctor; and where the government stops spending more than it can afford.Few politicians have been clearer about their positions.“Citizens shake my hand and say: ‘Now you have to do as you promised,’” Duchesneau said. “And I say: ‘If I don’t deliver, you won’t have to kick me out. I will kick myself out.’” The Duchesneau election means the people of Saint-Jérôme rejected the often xenophobic old-liners of the sovereignist Parti Québécois or the tired and sullied Liberals.His candidacy put Saint-Jérôme on the map as one of a handful of bellwether ridings in the 450 area code that could point to the underpinnings of a tidal shift in Quebec’s political future.The PQ may lead a minority government, but they do it with only about 32 per cent of the vote to the CAQ’s 27 per cent. As deputy leader, Duchesneau’s job will be to narrow that gap. He vows to do it by taking the fight against corruption directly to the National Assembly and all government departments. Clearly, the citizens of the new riding of Saint-Jérôme want what Duchesneau offers. They have accepted his message of integrity and the major changes his party proposed for correcting Quebec’s shaky fiscal condition and repairing its battered education and health care systems.Now the question is can he and his party make a credible enough showing in the National Assembly to persuade voters to replace the PQ minority with a CAQ government in the next election.wmarsden@montrealgazette.com

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